Senator wants limits on copy protection

[Lucas Gonze]

Deeply cluesome work from Sen. Brownback, but can that actually be his
real name?  Does he caucus with Mssrs. Redeye and Pimplenose?  If elected
I promise to introduce a bill to change this guy's name.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1013037.html

Senator wants limits on copy protection

By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 4, 2003, 9:54 AM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1013037.html

WASHINGTON--A conservative Republican senator said Wednesday that he 
has drafted a bill that would scale back the ability of record labels, 
movie studios and software companies to use anticopying technology.

The bill, authored by Sen. Sam Brownback, would regulate digital rights 
management systems, granting consumers the right to resell 
copy-protected products and requiring digital media manufacturers to 
prominently disclose to consumers the presence of anticopying 
technology in their products.

The Kansas Republican's bill requires that a copyright holder obtain a 
judge's approval before receiving the name of an alleged peer-to-peer 
pirate. That would amend the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 
which a federal court concluded enables a copyright holder to force the 
disclosure of a suspected pirate's identity without a judge's review. 
This law is at issue in the recording industry's recent pursuit of the 
identity of a Verizon Communications subscriber.

The main thrust of the Brownback bill, however, is to slap regulations 
on digital rights management (DRM) technology, which has become 
increasingly popular tool in reducing the widespread copyright 
infringement on the Internet. Last month, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer 
stressed his company's support for DRM technology. Apple Computer also 
uses DRM to limit how customers can reuse music that's downloaded from 
the iTunes Music Store. Some consumer groups argue that DRM infringes 
on the right to make "fair use" of copyrighted works and to back up 
legally purchased digital files.

"The legislation seeks to create new tools to combat unfettered 
Internet piracy of digital content while maintaining the important 
ability of our nation's hardware manufacturers to innovate and build 
products consumers need and want to use," Brownback said in a 
statement. "The legislation recognizes that the same DRM technologies 
used to combat piracy are also sought after by the content industry to 
create new DRM-enabled business models. My legislation gives them a 
free hand in seeking out DRM technologies that permit them to explore 
these new opportunities, but ensures their success or failure will rest 
in the marketplace, where it belongs--not in Congress."

If the Brownback proposal were enacted, the Federal Trade Commission 
would have the power to ban DRM systems that limit a consumer's right 
to resell any "digital media product," a category that includes 
everything from computer software to e-books to copy-protected CDs and 
movies. It also says that companies selling such products must offer 
"clear and conspicuous notice or a label on the product" indicating the 
presence of anticopying techology that follows FTC regulations, 
starting one year after the law's enactment, unless the FTC determines 
that industry groups have created reasonable "voluntary" guidelines of 
their own.

At a privacy and politics summit here on Tuesday, an industry 
representative said the bill--called the Consumers, Schools and 
Libraries Digital Rights Management Awareness Act--will likely be 
introduced at a press conference in the middle of next week. A 
representative for Brownback said Wednesday that he could not confirm 
when the event would be held, except to say it would take place 
"shortly." Brownback, a conservative with a 100 percent vote from the 
American Conservative Union in 2000, is a member of the Senate 
Communications Subcommittee.

"We're going to support it," Mike Godwin, an attorney with advocacy 
group Public Knowledge, said of Brownback's plan. "I think that Sen. 
Brownback and his staff have clearly made an effort to develop a bill 
that addresses some of the major excesses that we're seeing in the 
policy arena at the intersection of copyright policy and technology 
policy."

However, a representative at the Recording Industry Association of 
America said the legislation is "weighted down with a variety of bad 
public policy judgments hostile to all property owners. The DMCA was a 
carefully crafted compromise and balance struck by Congress. That's why 
efforts to cherry-pick particular provisions are likely to fail."

"With respect to the information subpoena provision," the RIAA 
representative continued, "the intent of Congress was clear and 
appropriate, and the district court's decisive rulings show that 
Congress got it right."

A draft of the Brownback bill provided to CNET News.com by a 
congressional aide also:

• Prohibits the Federal Communications Commission from forcing 
companies that make or sell PCs or digital video products to include 
specific copy-protection technology in them.

• Requires the FTC to create an advisory committee that will describe 
"the ways in which access control technology and redistribution control 
technology may affect consumer, educational institution and library use 
of digital media products based on their legal and customary uses of 
such products."

• Requires the FTC to prepare a report two years after the bill is 
enacted into law. The report would include information about how 
prevalent DRM technologies are, whether they allow "consumers, 
educational institutions and libraries to engage in all lawful uses of 
the product," and how often copyright holders have tried to glean 
subscriber information from Internet service providers.

Adam Thierer, an analyst at the free-market group Cato Institute, 
applauded parts of Brownback's bill--such as limiting the FCC's 
power--but said it was a mistake to involve the federal government in 
regulating DRM technology.

"It's a decidedly mixed bag," Thierer said. "There are some things 
worth praising, such as opposing technology mandates from the FCC, but 
the baggage in this bill in terms of the FTC regulations are somewhat 
troubling...There are requirements that cut in the opposite direction. 
That's really unfortunate."

An unrelated bill already introduced in Congress by Sen. Ron Wyden, 
D-Ore., takes a similar approach in part, saying that software, music 
and movies that include copy-protection technology must be prominently 
labeled as having such technology, with consumer warnings.
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